Fortunately, the ETS has been knocked in the head since the writing of this article.

Rudd is unlikely to use the defeat as an excuse for a double dissolution because he would certainly be called upon to explain his scheme and prove to voters that it would have some effect on climate.

He is unable to fulfill either of these requirements.

Abbott's impressive.

A fit, slim, healthy, Bacholar of Economics and Law with a Masters in Politics and Philosophy, a former Rhodes Scholar, who doesn't get drunk, thinks clearly and can speak Australian to Australians and uhmmm to Chinese.

Roll on the next federal election.

Rudd's clearly out classed and on the enviroment, with the Australian Electorate, clearly now left floundering. Roll on Copenhagen. Rudd's so fixated and now panicked judging from the Labor attack ads, he won't be able to back down from his current positions and will sign anything at Copenhagen for which Abbott will crucify him.

I wonder what effect the proposed US Senate enquiry into the UN Climate Change committee and the Hadley Centre 'science' and scientists will have. Especially now since the Climate Change Experts have admitted to 'losing' the 150 years of hard copy raw data their enhanced and reconstructed climate statistics, they claim, 'reflect'. The ones proporting to show climate warming and on which their future wildly scaremongering projections are based.

Ludwig is totally right. Unless and until our third world population growth is recognised as the environmental threat that it is, all else is useless. Forget the little c, worry about the Big P.

In respect of the Trading scheme it is obvious that we should not waste our money on a scheme that will almost certainly fail to meet a threat that is probably not there anyway.(AGW).

For a small fraction of that expenditure we could really get stuck into the environmental problems that definitely exist. Start with weeds, go on with feral animals, follow that up with ruined riparian zones, water issues everywhere with the lack of assured environmental flows, the continuing loss of biodiversity and so on.

Re the Big P from a global viewpoint, when are people going to look at the Big P as THE issue? Try for example the fact that the median age of people in the Gaza strip is 17. There is no hope at all socially, economically or environmentally under those circumstances.

Keith, Leigh & little brother, true, the only Abbott detractors i have seen on any forum are left wing nuts who have never voted conservative & never will. Their, praise Turnbull, ridicule Abbott, rubbish is obvious wedge politics. These left wing elites have always considered the average suburban voter, to be an idiot, in need of a good brow beating.

They and the "Canberra Press Gallery" seem to have forgotten, that labour did NOT win, the last election. Howard lost it, by not organising an orderly hand over & by going too far on industrial relations reform with "Work Choices". Many voters referred to as the "John Howard Battlers" were philosophically, "born labour voters". They were switched off labour by their anti business, anti family, pro child abuse policies.

They were driven back to labour by work choices, but labour have since, Kevin07 been back at, pandering to every lunatic, left, fringe group from climate coolers to femanazis, at the expense of every body else in the formerly silent majority. Tony Abbott may be just the poster boy the coalition needs to win those "Howard Battlers" back again. If he and the coalition play there cards right they could have labour out in the wilderness federally & in all states & territories for decades.

examinator, if you are so well informed on AGW, then why have you never heard of GD, Global Dimming or the "Shade Cloth Effect", or are you just not talking about it. It pops up on google, bing & yahoo, all the info, TV documentaries etc. It would perfectly explain why there was warming from the 70's into the 90's but cooling over the last decade since then.

If the world takes, the wrong action, on AGW now, reducing smog production, faster than co2 production, this could trigger, both, catastrophic Global Warming & GFC series 2 as well.

Tony Abbott recognised and supported the Rudd Government's mandate to introduce an ETS as late as July this year - at least, he said he did. Now he says that "mandates expire".

It appears that he has been happy to say whatever the moment demanded in the past.

That doesn't sound like a man who is guided by conviction

Prediction...
Labor will reintroduce the ETS next parliamentary sitting and will explain to all of the deniers/naysayers what it really means. Remiss of them not to do so in the first place but as the ETS was Coalition policy created by John Howard he probably didn't think he needed to!

Perhaps then you will all understand that this is not a tax nor is it really ultimately about short term economics, it is about the ethics of ignoring our obligation to mitigate the risk for future human generations and animal life with whom we share a potential threatened planet.

Once this is understood (by the rest of the electorate and 70% already do) I think ole Tone will "see the light"